Poll: Breast feeding

[Gilhelmi]

I say go for it, but with some small addendums.
snip

Secondly: Know when it's creepy. This is more of a general complaint than just in public. YOu have a little eight month old who needs dinner? No problem. You have a four year old who is still suckling? That's creepy, please don't.

I think all experts agree that four is too old. I honestly thought that was a joke then I made the mistake of googling it, thank God safe-search was on, I do not want to know what I would have gotten if it was off.

 

[AnnaIME]

you're only suppose to breast freed for a few months right and then move over to a bottle right??

The recommendation I got eight years ago was to give nothing but breast milk the first six months. Bottles were not recommended at all. If your baby needed extra liquid, give it with a spoon, or better yet: more of the good stuff, straight from the breast.

Around six months, start with sample tasting of purées, easing regular foods in, easing the breastfeeding out over the next few years. Continuing to give the breast as a bedtime snack or before a proper breakfast was encouraged until the child was up to four years old, but I know only one woman who did this. I agree that a four year old suckling in public would be a bit conspicuous, but are there really women who do this, anywhere in the industrialized world?

My own daughter had just turned three when she got her last "sip", and that was just a little relapse for instant comfort, since I had to go stay at the hospital a few weeks with her older brother and could only be with her an hour or so per day.

 

[bakan]

Breast feeding in public is perfectly fine and the only people I met who had a problem with it were some Americans.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

At a risk of sounding childish myself, if I were breastfeeding (under a blanket- naturally) in a restuarant and some guy comes up and asked me to stop, I would probably reply with a less-than-graceful `Clear off`.
When you've got kids you've got other things to think about than strangers getting all precious because they can't look away. Nobody forces you to look.

Childish? No. Self centered and inconsiderate? Yes. If it was a park, I would agree with you. However, if I'm going to a restaurant where I have to pay to be there, I have every right to not have to put up with a women doing something that would make me lose me appetite.

 

[Phasmal]

At a risk of sounding childish myself, if I were breastfeeding (under a blanket- naturally) in a restuarant and some guy comes up and asked me to stop, I would probably reply with a less-than-graceful `Clear off`.
When you've got kids you've got other things to think about than strangers getting all precious because they can't look away. Nobody forces you to look.

Childish? No. Self centered and inconsiderate? Yes. If it was a park, I would agree with you. However, if I'm going to a restaurant where I have to pay to be there, I have every right to not have to put up with a women doing something that would make me lose me appetite.

Someone holding a baby under a blanket so you can see nothing but blanket would put you off your dinner?
Deal with it, and don't look. It's not their fault if you are THAT sensitive just because you KNOW it's getting fed.
People with missing teeth make me want to be sick but I've met plenty of them and managed not to be a dick about it.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I can't really vote against anything that keeps kids quiet in public so...
Also what the hell is wrong with using boobs to do what they're biologically supposed to do?

That said, there are some occasions where I would get squeamish about this. If the mother is massively obese or very old (or very young) or whatever I'd rather they showed as little flesh as possible. The same goes for middle aged men who walk around in nothing but banana hammocks around pools or beaches... *shudder*

 

[robot slipper]

Well "breast milk is better" is true, but then you can bottle breast milk too you know.

Well, some women can, and others can't. Babies and pumps don't actually suck the milk out, they stimulate the breast to sort of shoot the milk out. (Yes, the pressure can be quite high. Yes, if baby chooses to let go, nosey spectators can get an eye-ful.) For some women, the milk just won't come unless there is a warm, hungry, hormone-triggering baby ready to recieve.

Then there's the matter of breastfeeding being a skill that both mother and baby have to learn. Eating from a bottle is a matter of just swallowing fast enough and not choking. Suckling is hard work for a small baby. If they don't learn the skill and build enough strength, they can lose the ability to suckle altogether.

Thirdly: milk from the breast is fresh, at the right temperature and nearly always ready. Pumped milk from a bottle has to be refrigerated and heated, risking loss of quality. Pumps and bottles have to be cleaned. When you have a baby, there is plenty of necessary work without adding more.

Forthly: when a baby feeds from the breast, the first sucks have a different composition than the last, ensuring that the baby gets enough liquid before it gets sated. Pumped milk is the same all through the bottle.

Should all these aspects be disregarded because some people feel "awkward"?

Thank you, this is exactly what I was thinking when I saw all the "just use a pump!" posts! I was breastfeeding my son just fine, then I was pressured into trying to use a pump by my mother-in-law because her dear darling son was feeling left out by not being able to "have a turn" feeding the baby. Using it was painful, and I never ended up getting enough milk out for an entire feed anyway.

I have always been quite self-conscious about my body so I did try to avoid having to breastfeed in public, but sometimes it can't be avoided. When a young baby is hungry, they will cry until they get fed, they don't care that you are a half-hour walk from home. I felt much worse having a screaming baby and feeling that everyone was looking at me thinking I was a bad parent than I did by calming the hungry baby with a discreet feed.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Someone holding a baby under a blanket so you can see nothing but blanket would put you off your dinner?
Deal with it, and don't look. It's not their fault if you are THAT sensitive just because you KNOW it's getting fed.
People with missing teeth make me want to be sick but I've met plenty of them and managed not to be a dick about it.

Again, when it is at a place that I payed for, I have every right to ask that the women does that somewhere else. If the women doesn't like it, she can go somewhere else.

 

[Phasmal]

Someone holding a baby under a blanket so you can see nothing but blanket would put you off your dinner?
Deal with it, and don't look. It's not their fault if you are THAT sensitive just because you KNOW it's getting fed.
People with missing teeth make me want to be sick but I've met plenty of them and managed not to be a dick about it.

Again, when it is at a place that I payed for, I have every right to ask that the women does that somewhere else. If the women doesn't like it, she can go somewhere else.

First of all, you don't pay to be there. You pay to eat.
Secondly, the woman has every right to tell you where to stick it. Breast feeding is not illegal.

Breastfeeding in public (restaurants, cafes, libraries etc.) is protected under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 under the provision of goods, facilities and services section. If the child is under 6 months old, the mother has additional protection under a 2008 amendment to the act which protects maternity rights.

Unless she's coming over and sticking her tit in your face, keep your opinion out of hers.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

First of all, you don't pay to be there. You pay to eat.

Your arguing over semantics. You know full well what I implied.

Secondly, the woman has every right to tell you where to stick it. Breast feeding is not illegal.

Breastfeeding in public (restaurants, cafes, libraries etc.) is protected under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 under the provision of goods, facilities and services section. If the child is under 6 months old, the mother has additional protection under a 2008 amendment to the act which protects maternity rights.

Unless she's coming over and sticking her tit in your face, keep your opinion out of hers.

I never said it is illegal, just that if I go to a restaurant where I have to pay, I have the right to not have to put up with a women breast feeding.

 

[Phasmal]

Snip.

Yeah, you can leave- or not look.
You can't tell other people what to do with their own body. Sorry if you don't like it, but you just cant.
So, someone is doing a perfectly legal thing that you happen to not like so you're going to go and sort them out?
Good luck with that.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Snip.

Yeah, you can leave- or not look.
You can't tell other people what to do with their own body. Sorry if you don't like it, but you just cant.
So, someone is doing a perfectly legal thing that you happen to not like so you're going to go and sort them out?
Good luck with that.

Yeah, she can leave or stop it.

You can tell people what to do with there own bodies which is why you can't run around naked at a playground.

Funny thing is, its not illegal to wear t-shirts, but there are restaurants that won't let you in if your not wearing formal clothes. Restaurants have had and continue to have rules for things that are not illegal.

Thanks, it worked in the past and it will work again.

 

[RagTagBand]

Let me pee outdoors, in public, without getting a fine and then we'll talk.

 

[Lukeje]

I didn't even want to take part in this argument, but come on. Milk not being that unsanitary is a very fair point but hair isn't that unsanitary either, and we flip if we see a bunch of them floating on our soup.

If the breast milk is ending up in your soup, I think that someone is doing something wrong...

 

[Snotnarok]

Let them do it, who cares. If you seeing it bothers you then here's a thought, don't look, it's really that easy there's not much of an excuse to shun something that's as natural as it can get.

 

[Faux Furry]

If men don't need an excuse to take their shirts off in public (no matter how they look), there is no reason to prevent women from using their breasts for their primary biological function when they actually have a reason to do so.

 

[robot slipper]

Let me pee outdoors, in public, without getting a fine and then we'll talk.

Wellll.. again, that isn't really an equal comparison. Urine is a foul-smelling waste product which you expel from your body. It can leave a messy stain, and the aroma lingers for quite some time (try walking through an underpass or a multi-story car park stairwell without having to hold your nose). Breast milk, on the other hand, passes directly from one human to the other, so there is no mess or offensive smell left over. It's pretty understandable why carrying out one action will get you a fine, and the other won't.

 

[Aprilgold]

The "it's natural" argument really gets on my nerves. Pissing and shitting are natural, but people generally don't think that makes it OK.

It doesn't bother me really, but I think that it bothers some people should be enough to make people not do it in public. Since there are breast pumps and such there is no real reason why you would have to breast feed in public.

So just be a decent human being and don't needlessly make other people uncomfortable regardless of how irrational you consider their discomfort

True. By the same-thought-process as the natural argument, my whole body is natural therefore I should be able to walk around naked.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Why a woman wouldn't carry a bag with them at all times while with a baby for things like diaper materials and bottles of milk I see as either lazy or not-fit-to-be-good-mom, maybe decent-mom, but not good-mom.

Here's a question, what if your child urinates or poops and you have to clean the diaper, how are you going to do this without a bag carrying the essentials? And if you have a bag why don't you just bottle some milk and put it in the bag so that your child can also feed and your breasts don't have to be whipped out. What reason is there to breastfeed in public now with such portable stuff?

 

[jawakiller]

I don't see the problem, how can anybody even pretend to give a shit?

"Wow, that woman is feeding her helpless infant in plain view. I'm so terribly offended."

Yeah, still don't get it. Maybe it's because I have an easy disposition but I just can't see how it affects, literally, anyone save the mother and the baby. Of course, I'm a dude so my opinion differs from the actual mothers. Or at least my thought process.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

I don't have a problem with breastfeeding on principle(there's no reason I should). That said, I would certainly object if I was in a restaurant and some woman just started doing it in front of me. Making it illegal is going too far, but that kind of behaviour is in my opinion plain rude.